In: Computer Science
What does Sherry Turkle mean when she says that the computer is a medium for self-discovery and self-expression?
She says this because of the new ways people get to express themselves. Also new cognitive styles are created with new different methods to solving problems can be found out due to the use of this system.
In 1984, Turkle published the results of her topic of research, the psychological impact of the personal computer, then newly entered into our lives. "When I went to MIT and came upon students who talked about their minds as machines, I became intrigued by the way in which they were using this computer language to talk about their minds, including their emotions, whereas I used a psychoanalytic one. Computers were now becoming a metaphor for such issues. I sensed that I was living through a transition. I was partly in the psychoanalytic world and partly in the computer world: the two were often at cross purposes, often not. The Second Self was Diary Number Two for me."
In this groundbreaking book, she suggested that the PC is no simple "tool" but instead an evocative object, helping us to redefine who and what we are, where we stand in the world of artifact.